The Bangkok Military Court on Friday approved 17 new arrest warrants for suspects linked with last month's bombings in the capital.
The warrants were sought by police for charges of premeditated murder and causing a deadly explosion.
Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said one of the suspects is Adem Karadag, also known as Bilal Turk, now identified by police as possibly the yellow-shirted man, based on CCTV footage that could put him at the scene, planting the deadly bomb at the Erawan shrine at Ratchaprasong intersection on Aug 17.
Karadag: Allegedly confessed to blast
He did not name the other suspects hit with arrest warrants, but said there are some new suspects in the case. According to Pol Lt Gen Srivara, deputy national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda ordered the arrest warrants yesterday.
He said the MPB investigators did not question Mr Karadag — who is being held at the 11th Army Circle — on Thursday, but officers from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) did. The NCPO officers will give the suspect's account to MPB investigators, he said.
Responding to a comment by Mr Karadag's lawyer Choochart Khanpai that his client's appearance does not match the yellow-shirted man in CCTV footage, Pol Lt Gen Srivara said the lawyer can meet the investigators to give information linked to the case.
If more people are implicated in the deadly bombing case, police will go after them, he said. Mr Karadag was the first suspect detained in connection with the shrine bombing on Aug 17 and the Sathon pier blast the following day. He was apprehended on Aug 29 at his room at the Pool Anant apartment in Nong Chok district where bomb-making materials were found.
Another suspect, Yusufu Mieraili, was apprehended in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province on Sept 1, according to the Thai military. Mr Mieraili allegedly admitted to delivering a bomb-laden rucksack to the yellow-shirted suspect.
Police said Mr Karadag also confessed to being the yellow-shirted suspect after police showed him evidence from CCTV footage in Lumpini Park recorded not long after the blast.
According to police sources, the yellow-shirted man entered the park's Gate 4 and went into a toilet at 7.04pm and left about four minutes later wearing a grey shirt, based on the video footage.
Surveillance cameras then captured Mr Karadag walking in the park at 7.09pm, and leaving through Gate 3 at 7.14pm, before taking a taxi to his apartment. Police are now searching for the taxi driver, the sources said.
National police chief Somyot Poompunmuang said questioning of the two detained suspects has yielded satisfactory results.
Police now have adequate evidence against the suspects, he said. The police chief said the grey shirt the bomber was wearing in the Lumpini Park footage was found in Mr Karadag's room during the raid on Aug 29.
But Pol Gen Somyot said more evidence is still needed to corroborate the account. He refused to confirm if Mr Karadag was the suspect who planted the bomb, though he conceded he looked like the yellow-shirted (and grey-shirted) man.
Pol Gen Somyot insisted the suspects detained in connection with the blasts are not scapegoats.
"We were convinced from the moment we apprehended Mr Karadag that he was the shrine bomber, but there were also reports that the attacker had fled elsewhere," he said, adding that these reports prompted officers to check all information.
A key obstacle in the probe was that some witnesses did not tell the truth out of fear they would be implicated in human smuggling, Pol Gen Somyot said.
But the investigation is moving in the right direction now, the national police chief added.